Evan Longoria, Home Runs, GIDPs and History

by Tommy Rancel on Sep 1, 2009 12:00 PM EDT

The Rays are a very odd statistical team. I pointed out the Carlos Pena home run vs. singles oddity nearly two weeks ago. Just yesterday, Erik pointed out that Matt Garza and Jeff Niemann are on pace for a strange piece of history in the run support category. And now we have this little tidbit to snack on.

After grounding into his league leading 25^thdouble play yesterday, Evan Longoria became the 41st player in Major League history with at least 25 home runs and 25 GIDP in the same season.Luckily for Longoria, he joined names like Harmon Killebrew, Mike Piazza, Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Albert Pujols, Vladimir Guerrero, and Cal Ripken Jr. amongst others. Overall, there have been 46 occurrences of this season including Longoria's; the most recent before Evan's was from Vlad Guerrero in 2008.

Longo is the first player to have 25 home runs and 25 GIDPs in the same season as a Rays player. However, he is not the first 25/25 man to have worn a Rays uniform. That would be Ben Grieve, who had 27 home runs and 32 GIDP as a member of the Oakland A's in 2000, the year before he joined the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

With more than 30 games and ~100-120 plate appearances left for Longoria, he is on pace for a 30 home run, 30 GIDP season. Like Pena, it's a weird way to go about obtaining a 30/30 season, but he does have a shot. If Longoria does get to this version "30/30" club, the membership becomes much more exclusive.

While 41 players including Longo have gone 25/25, only four players in Major League history have hit more than 30 home runs while grounding into more than 30 double plays in the same season. Strangely enough, this type of season occurred three times in 1983 when Boston Red Sox teammates Tony Armas and the super feared Jim Rice accomplished the feat along with AL East rival, Dave Winfield of the New York Yankees. The last time this type of 30/30 season happened was in 1999 by Ivan Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers. If Longo does actually "succeed" and gain entry to this club, he will also gain membership to the 30/30/30 club and join Rice as the only players in MLB history to hit 30+ home runs, 30+ doubles, and hit into 30+ double plays; Jayson Stark eat your heart out.

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Good timing for this article

That’s all I’m going to say.

by RivalsTees on Sep 1, 2009 12:06 PM EDT via mobile reply actions

Longo has also never been caught stealing

by BrendanHarrisLives on Sep 1, 2009 12:21 PM EDT reply actions

looking at his fangraphs page

There doesn’t seem to be any discernible differences in batted ball or plate discipline from this year and last year.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but could the increase of GIDPs be as a result of him being ineffective against the cutter? He was +2.26 wCT/C last year and he is -.81 wCT/C this year. Or are GIDPs all due to random chance?

by BrendanHarrisLives on Sep 1, 2009 12:30 PM EDT reply actions

Quick question

When referring to XX/XX clubs, take Albert Pujols for example, he’s 4 GIDP away from 25. Obviously he has 41 HR’s. Would you then have to say 25/40 club, or could you still say 25/25 club? I’ve always wondered if you went all the way up to a players current number or if you could cut it short like that and shave off the 16 homers.

Stupid question, just curious. :D

by Doug09 on Sep 1, 2009 12:31 PM EDT reply actions

For this particular one I searched for

Players with over 25 home runs and over 25 GIDP so Pujols would be in there. The next benchmark I set was over 30 hr and over 30 gidp and that’s where the list dropped off to only 4 names

www.draysbay.com

by Tommy Rancel on Sep 1, 2009 12:41 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

Ya I got that. I was just wondering if a player had 40 HR's if I could theoretically say 25/25 club.

I wasn’t bashing your post, just a somewhat unrelated question I had.

by Doug09 on Sep 1, 2009 12:46 PM EDT up reply actions

No problem. I didn't want to narrow the sample size more than it already was.

www.draysbay.com

by Tommy Rancel on Sep 1, 2009 1:27 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

Any idea on how constant

GIDP numbers are, Pujols #’s look consistent over the years, while Derrek Lee (who was dubbed GIDP Lee last off season by Cub fan) has less than half as many as he had last year? So any idea on how this number fluctuates, it is obviously contingent on players being on base, but writers here have talked about how he tries to make contact on 2 strike pitches with runners on even if it is just going to be a soft opposite field grounder. Any thoughts?

Kaz/Shields/Garza/Sonny/Price/Davis/Hellickson-necessitate a drool cup or a 7 man rotation

by CubFanRaysaddict on Sep 1, 2009 5:33 PM EDT reply actions

Rglass had a great piece last year about GIDP.

I’ll see if I can find it.

Embrace Eternity

by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 1, 2009 11:07 PM EDT up reply actions

This is it, it's about pitchers, but you should be able to find the numbers for hitters

LINK Smaller sample size I imagine, but you can compare a bunch of guys year to year and probably get something strong out of it. I think I’ll try to update what he did for this year, seems like we don’t turn it as much as last year.

Embrace Eternity

by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 1, 2009 11:11 PM EDT up reply actions